The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-16
A CENTURY OF LAW.
AN ADDRESS BEFORE ALABAMA'S
BAR ASSOCIATION.

Judge John f. Dillon, of New York,
the Speaker of the Dey-Some of the
Changes Of the Past Hundred Years
The Growth of Legal Literature.
MONTGOMERY, ALA, Dec. 15-The State
Bar Association met here to-day, with a
large attendance. Judge John F. Dillon, of
New York, delivered the annual address,
which was received with enthusiastic ap-
plause. He said that as this is the centen-
nial year of the adoption of the Federal
constitution he had selected as his subject
"a Century of American Law"
After a retrospect of the general situation
and coming to view the condition of En-
glish and American law 100 years age, he
said it was at that time faithfully mirrored
in Blackstone's Commentaries, the first
complete edition of which was published
just six years before the American revolu-
ton.
CHANGES OF A CENTURY.
After adverting to the baneful effects of
the fe.. dial system upon English law, part
of which only we had escaped, he noticed
the following changes upon subjects of gen
eral and permanent importance, within a
century; Imprisonment for debt had been
abolished in both Great Britain and
America. In this legislation America
had led the way. BY way of contrast he
alluded to the modern liberal exemption
and homestead laws of several States and
of the national government. Under the
beneticent operation of the latter act more
than l00, 100000 acres of land had been on
tered by $50, 600 heads of families. He next
adverted to the great and beneficial changes
made within the last fifty years in respect
to the rights of married women. The
principle of the American married women's
protective acts was in 1870, and in 1882
adopted by the English Parliament.
OLD TIME CRIMINAL LAWS.
Referring to the criminal laws of En-
gland 100 years ago, he showed that at that
time near 200 ofrenses were capital felonies,
and that the laws were otherwise oppressive
and severe. They have been gradually
ameliorated, so that at this time only four
offenses are capitally punishable in England
and only two in this country. He noticed
the abolition of common law forms of
action and pleadings and changes made by
codes of procedure in this scountryssand, by
the British judicature act of 1878 adopting
the principle of the American codes), as
among the most salutary reforms i'll law
Emendations in the law of evidence, by
which all persons including par
ties to the suit have been
made competent witnesses, were
regarded as great improvement in legal
administration, in which England had led
the way and we had followed. The growth
of corporations and of corporate litigation
was dwelt upon at length, and statistics
given, showing that nearly half of modern
reported cases involve corporation Law.
LEGAL LITERATURE.
He next traced the growth of legal liter
ature in this country. A century ago we
had no American books, In 1885 we had
published 3 ,793 volumes of reports against
$500 in England Turning to the century
to come, he predicted various changes in in
ternational and municipal law, among
which would be the abolition of literary
piracy, and systematic restatement of the
body of our laws. He appealed to the
young to take up this great work, and con-
cluded by saying: "Mayhap some young man
hears me to-day, gifted beyond the common
lot with an eve couched to that wider and
higher sweep that viii take i'll all the con-
structive possibilities of the rich and scat
tered materials of our laws, and be SO for
tunate as to leave upon the massive, impo-
sing, sever advancing, but imperishable,
structure of our Jurisprudence some visible
imprint, some embodied memorial of his
genius as well as of his abors."